In our everyday communications there are endless opportunities to be truthful about our feelings, thoughts and experiences. And many times, maybe most of the time, we end up choosing the seemingly easier path where we just don’t go there at all or soften things up thinking that it will make things easier for everybody.

That, anyway, is what I keep facing and seeing places where honesty and directness are absolutely fantastic tools to apply. Fear is what keeps us from moving into that direction because when there is a stronger flow in a situation there is also less control over what happens. Of course the idea of being in control is a mere fantasy, but one that most people cling onto for dear life. And ironically, perhaps, that is how we loose the ability to be truly alive, because of the desire to be in control.

When we think of children it is easy to see how innocent and truthful they can be in their expression. The conditioning and filters of various kinds are not yet effectively in place and for a short period the child is able to express very truthful things in a simple and direct way. Returning to a similar state of innocence as adults is what creates the opportunity for honest expression. 

How to be innocent when our minds are cluttered with past experiences and beliefs and thoughts about ourselves and the world? How to express anything clearly when it has to move through so much of inner landscape that is in turmoil?

If innocence is at the center of our own being then in order to experience it one must go where it is – inwards. We are at this point masters of the outward movement of the mind which has to do with everything in our worlds of sensory experience. But so much of the inner is left unconscious because we are not there to pay attention to it.

So to move inwards there has to be a path and a way to do it and of course there is. Those who have mastered consciousness and are beyond the confines of the limited experience of the waking state self have given us something to work with to reverse this flow of continual outward movement back inside toward the innocence of Being.

As we gain more access to that innocence that is present in us, and has been at all times, we naturally become more truthful and more expressive of what is real in our lives and what we see around us. Then every day we see more and more opportunities to pay attention to what is real and be present. 

Nataraja